“All those sleepless nights, all those doctor visits. If only we’d known that a tumor was killing our boy from the inside the whole time, then maybe his condition wouldn’t be so critical today!Maybe he wouldn’t have needed a dangerous brain surgery to survive, and we would have been able to afford his treatment!” — Banu, mother, crying
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Little Ziya is just four years old, but he’s seen more pain in the past few months than most adults will have experienced in their entire lives. It all started with a seemingly innocent headache in July.
“One evening, he came to me saying his head was hurting all over. I massaged it for a while, and the pain seemed to go away. But then a few days later it was back, and it seemed like it was even worse this time! We took him to a local clinic, and they gave us some medicines that made the pain stop, but it was only a temporary respite. No matter how many times they treated him, Ziya’s headache kept coming back, and each time it was more and more painful!” — Firoj, father
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Scans revealed a terrifying culprit, in his brain
“The headaches got so bad that he started vomiting from the pain. Firoj and I had no idea what to do next because we’d taken him to the clinic multiple times already and done everything the doctors there had asked us to do. Finally, a month after it all started, we got the recommendation to get an MRI done for Ziya. That’s how we found out what had been causing all his pain and suffering. A tumor! Right in his brain!” — Banu
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Ziya’s parents have been trying to save his life desperately
After getting the life-changing diagnosis that their 4-year-old has a tumor in his brain, Firoj and Banu wasted no time in heeding their doctor’s suggestion, and brought him to a big city hospital. Though nearly 3 hours away from their home, it was his only hope for survival. Indeed, once he got here, he was admitted, and these terrified parents were told that their little one could survive, if only he got a brain surgery as soon as possible. It’s been a month since then, and Firoj is still struggling to put the funds together.
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‘I’m just a vegetable vendor...’
“I’ve never even seen more than a few thousand rupees at a time in one place in my life. But my son needs at least 8 lakhs to get the surgery that will remove the tumor in his brain and save his life. I’ve already borrowed as much money as I could to keep him in the hospital this long, I can’t afford such an expensive surgery on top of that! But without it... we’ll lose Ziya. Please, help him, save his life!” — Firoj